AkhiTweet

The dates cut the other way, Carolina. Ceuta was Moorish from 709 to 1415, Melilla from 700s to 1497. Both were ruled for 7 centuries by the Idrisids, Almoravids, Almohads and Marinids, dynasties governing from Fez and Marrakesh, the direct predecessors of the Moroccan state. Portugal took Ceuta at sword-point in 1415, Castile took Melilla in 1497, the same decade it expelled the Moors from Granada. If conquest date settles ownership, those same dynasties held Cordoba and Seville for longer than Spain has held Ceuta. But. Good news. You can sleep at night. Morocco will never take them back. Because the statesmen running the country aren't as stupid as the people calling for conquest. I think it's astonishing how Whites claim Spain to be the owners of those lands, while Arabs claim that they belong to Morocco, when both camps should be pushing for the complete opposite. All you need is half a brain to understand that those lands are worth far more to Morocco as Spanish cities than they would ever be as Moroccan ones. Put it this way. They are the only places on Earth where the EU can be reached on foot from Africa. This immigration crisis is only possible because the soil on the other side of the fence is European. Hand the cities to Morocco and they become two poor port towns with fish and more unemployment. Keep them Spanish and they are the most profitable 30 square kilometers in the Mediterranean. Over 1 billion euros in EU border payments, a US recognition of Western Sahara, a French one, a UN resolution, an EU trade deal, and a Spanish government that reversed 47 years of foreign policy after the last squeeze. Morocco owns a tollbooth instead of lands they're supposed to own.